Footage shows Maqsood’s killing in fake encounter

KARACHI - CCTV footage confirmed that Maqsood was killed in an extrajudicial killing, the police officials investigating the case is likely to add anti-terrorism clause in the First Information Report (FIR) already registered against the police personnel involved in the alleged encounter.

Police investigators said that they have added Section 7 of the ATA in charge sheet, adding that the charge sheet will submit to the judicial magistrate and now the police investigators is looking for the District Public Prosecutor and the Judicial Magistrate whether they accept the police request or not.

A brother of five sisters, 27-year-old tailor Maqsood Khan was killed early in the morning on January 20, at Shahrah-e-Faisal by the police personnel.

The police party, which had encountered Maqsood, claimed that he was a criminal and was killed during a shoot-out. However, a few hours later, the police authorities renounced their initial statement and, instead, issued another statement claiming that an ‘innocent’ citizen was killed in crossfire between a suspect and the police.

The police had also claimed that two suspects, Ali and Babar, had been arrested while their accomplice, Ibrahim, had managed to escape in the encounter.

According to the police, the suspects arrested were involved in several cases of mobile phone snatching and they targeted people coming from the Karachi airport.

However, the case took u-turn after the Maqsood’s sisters reached the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to receive the body where they refused to accept the claim of police officials.

The police officials investigating the extrajudicial killing of Maqsood while viewing CCTV footage of the incident is considering to add Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) in the FIR registered already against the cops allegedly responsible for the incident. The move comes a week after the victim’s father made a public demand for the accused to be arrested again and tried under Section 7 of the ATA.

Human rights activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir maintained that Section 7 had to be added to the FIR due to the nature of the case, adding that Ali, Babar, Ibrahim and Maqsood were all innocents since the footage showed that policemen shot Maqsood under the pretext of an encounter.